Research Interests:American Political Development and Implications for Nation-Building

James B. Duke Professor (7/1/1985-12/3/2014) of Political Science, formerly specialized in the government and politics of the former Soviet Union. He is the author of How the Soviet Union is Governed; SovietLeadership in Transition;The Struggle for the Third World;Soviet Debate and American Options; Democratization and Revolution in the USSR 1985-1991; and The Logic of Economic Reform in Russia.

His current research centers on the establishment of the state, identity, markets, and democracy in the United States. His first book on the subject is Changing Party Coalitions: The Strange Red-Blue State Alignment (2006). His next book is George Washington and the formation of the American Political System, 1774-1799. The book focuses on the political philosophy of the Founding Fathers and the way that they solved the religions conflicts and the collective action problems of the revolution and the Constitutional Convention. Hough also writes on the implications for current Iraq.